Sunday, April 5, 2009

Obama Sets out Plans for Nuclear Free World

In response to a recently launched missile in North Korea, President Obama spoke with urgency regarding the matter of nuclear proliferation. Even though it was just a test it shows the North Koreans devotion to getting a weapons system fully functional. He urged the United Nations to punish North Korea and Pyongyang for violating the laws with their missile launch. The matter will be discussed by the United Nations Security Council later this week. This is said to be president Obama’s biggest national security or foreign policy since entering office earlier this year. President Obama gave a speech in the Czech Republic capital Prague, on the current state of nuclear weapons in the world. Obama states, “The United States will take concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons," and "To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others to do the same" in the speech which was given in front of 20,000 onlookers in the city symbolic of the Cold War era. The United States is taking steps to encourage the world to end the nuclear arms race and stand down. President Obama is encouraging the world to get past cold world thinking of stockpiling nuclear weapons. Also Obama states that the United States of America have a moral responsibility to lead the effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons because we are the only ones that have ever actually deployed one on an enemy. Currently the amount of nuclear missiles in existence has enough firepower to wipe out every major city in existence. Should such a conflict ever arise where their use is needed the results could be catastrophic. They also announced that if Iran would not cooperate that a missile defense system would be put up in Europe, either in the Czech Republic or Poland. These locations have been criticized from their close proximity to Russia and are viewed as acts of aggression towards the country which could be counterproductive to the plan issued today. The Obama administration recognizes removing all nuclear weapons could take longer than a lifetime and may never be met. To reduce arms he plans to introduce a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia who has the second largest stockpile of warheads next to the United States.